Ending Strong - Starting Stronger

December ‘15/January ‘16

The end of 2015 was very busy with ministry and 2016 has not slowed down a bit. Busy can be bad, but in this case it has been filled with individuals giving their life to Jesus, starting new ministries, and emerging leaders asking to be pushed deeper into the things of God so that they can be used more for Him. Fun stuff!

Here are a handful of updates from the last two months:

UPDATES

Christmas Banquet & Toy Store

A lot of faith, love and a desire to see God move powerfully inspired our planning of the Christmas Banquet this year. Up until a couple weeks or so before the event it looked like it may not come together (due to a lack of funds and help). We had way more people that wanted to come than helpers or finances to pull off the meal and toy store. Thankfully everything poured in once again reminding us that we serve a great big God and that the Body of Christ is a beautiful thing.

The event began with worship and a short Christmas message. (At top: a group picture after the service)

  Then we have craft stations – where families could make an ornament, buttons and take family pictures or fun group shots in a photo booth. Thanks to CMP, YNCC and others that came to volunteer and make all of this possible. Our daughter, Rebecca, helped run the button machine.

God answered the specific prayer requests from our last update – thank you for praying. This was a better event than the last 2 years we’ve done this too. There was a greater warmth and it seemed a lot easier to share the message of hope and salvation in Christ with guests. In part, we believe this is due to the church maturing and bringing this message into their conversations with people during the meal. Our church wasn’t listening to the message during the service to learn for themselves as in they have done in past years. This year they experienced everything with and for the people they invited - sharing the meaning and gift of Christmas.

 

What’s a celebration without some really good food? Our Christmas meal together provided wonderful opportunities for conversations about faith and life in Jesus and develop deeper relationships.

Every family was blessed! Thank you so much to everyone who gave toys or money so that we could buy toys. We had a great selection and families were able to select something special for each child – and pay only 25-30% the original price. We then gift wrapped their toys and sent them on their way smiling.

New Home Group Started! – One exciting thing that happened at the Christmas Banquet was a lady from Lynnwood (near Watts) whose brother is part of our church decided she wanted to pursue God more.  So, we decided to open a new home group Bible study at her house every week. She invited family, friends and neighbors and now we have another group growing in God.

With the van that was donated to us last year, we have been able to bring her family and sometimes others to the service (they don’t have their own transportation). As the group grows we have talked about the potential that it develops into another church plant…pray with us that more would come to know Jesus personally and live for Him!

 It ended up raining really hard the night of the banquet, which fortunately didn’t seem to effect the attendance, but meant we had to save the piñata until the next day – Sunday – to break after the service.

All-Night Prayer Service

One of the home groups in our church organized a special all-night prayer and testimony service. It was well attended and one of the most powerful events/services we have had as a church in the last year. We were amazed to see and hear of all that God has done and is doing amongst this group of people. It is exciting to look ahead into this new year with anticipation for greater things.

Baptism

Our first service in 2016 was a vision service setting out vision, goals and strategy for this new year. Even more exciting was the baptism afterwards. While the water and weather was a bit chilly (for us here in Los Angeles) it was a powerful time to come around and speak into Rosa, who made the decision to follow the Lord and be baptized at the All-Night Prayer Service a few weeks earlier

Men's Night

A group of our men came together for a night of fun and fellowship around the pool table at our church. Through conversations with this group of guys we put together a half-day long prayer and planning time to engage these emerging leaders more in the before, during and after of ministry and church life.  

South Park Remodel Update

The park across from our church building has been undergoing some remodeling. This week they will finish the first phase – a beautiful, new synthetic soccer field (pictured, our church can be seen through the fence on the other side). We are excited about new opportunities and relationships that will come from this renovated space.

A Very Special Birthday

Karina is a very special part of our church. She has down syndrome and adds so much joy and laughter to our times together. She loves to worship God and her favorite color is pink. Two weeks before her birthday, her mom’s mother passed away – leaving a devastating hole in their hearts. As our church has walked with the family through their grieving in this season, some of the ladies in the church got together and planned out a very special birthday party for Karina. As you can imagine this blessed the whole family and was so much fun for the whole church.  

 

Coming up:

• Pastor’s Association Mtg. (Chad’s on leadership team):   February 7
• Winter Youth Camp:  February 13-15
• Music Workshop:  February 20
• Short Term Mission’s Team:  February 26-29

Please Pray with Us…

1. That we could continue to identify and empower leaders in the ministry.  (And that those that we have been working with would obey God completely and follow Him into His will for their life.)
2. That we might effectively reach the lost in this community. We would love to baptize 20 people this year – which would be more than any other year so far. 
3. For the youth group as they go to camp in a couple weeks. We have a couple (parents of one of the youth) going with our youth leaders as “Youth Leaders in Training” – pray that this is a powerful, Spirit-led weekend with lasting fruit.
4. Please continue to cover our family specifically – that our hearts would be fully His, that we could serve one another lovingly as we serve others, and for general health and protection.

Thank you! May God continue to shower His blessings on your life so that you can bless others.

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Justice and Beniah